USA West Japan 2008: finally some good pics!!!

Here are some pics from various stages of our Fukuoka journey. Tonight is our last night in the city and I can''t wait to go to Osaka tomorrow. We absolutely dominated this "stand up bar" tonight across the street from our hotel. These two bartender girls absolutely loved us, letting us fill up our drinks at ease. The sake-beer combo is mean; gets you absolutely tossed at the same time, not so hungover. This brings me to my next point: as a team, we are so used to speaking with our broken English and simple sentences, when we go to speak English again with one another...very hard..yes?? We've only been in Japan for 5 days, but our days are longer than you can ever imagine...this is coming from a guy who hates mornings and wakes up at 1 pm on days when he doesn't have anything to do...we have very fun...yes?

our coaches just got back to the hotel with some great stories about their night. The JLA (Japanese Lacrosse Association) took them out for their last night in Fukuoka. They went to a restaurant where they literally fish for their own seafood, which is then celebrated and cooked. They hung out all night together, sharing drinks and stories late into the night. It sounds like in Japan, they treat their guests with the utmost respect. Hearing everyone's stories about their host families/students, it is very apparent that we are extremely welcome here. We've had a lot of free time in the last few days; here are some great pictures including my host brother and our adventures around Fukuoka.

I can't wait to go to Osaka tomorrow, the second largest city in Japan should be another incredible experience, and i am even more excited to play better competition. As said before, the second largest city in Japan is also home to the second best lacrosse teams in the nation. We should see some closer games which will only bring out the best in our team. The time spent off the field together has brought us a lot closer, I can't wait to play again.